


First Dates and Soulmates

by timber_is_my_legacy



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Fic, Fluff, HOW TO TITLE, Love, MSR, Oneshot, Romance, its cute, kind of post episode?, or write a summary, season 7, season of secret sex, so I wrote something, the field where I died made me unhappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24367813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timber_is_my_legacy/pseuds/timber_is_my_legacy
Summary: "Everyday I'm more and more sure I've loved you before. I've known you before Scully. I've loved you for as long as the stars have shined."
Relationships: Fox Mulder & Dana Scully, Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 4
Kudos: 63





	First Dates and Soulmates

**Author's Note:**

> Another thing for fun. My other fic, Colder Weather is coming along and will be all finished soon and this is just a one shot because “The Field Where I Died” bothers me a lot. I’m a huge MSR fan and it just ain’t cutting it for me. So here’s this short little thing

It was about a week after a particularly grueling case that Mulder asked her out on a date. She'd been surprised to say the least. 

"Mulder, I figured that-" 

"I know, Scully, but I never took you out on a real proper date. You deserve to have a man who will take you out to have a good time." He avoided the word boyfriend. He always did. She was glad; the term really didn't encompass whatever this was. Not in the least. 

So she had agreed and asked where. He refused her an answer, begging her to trust him as she always did. Mulder clocked out early Friday, telling her he had to get ready and she wondered briefly what she had gotten herself into. After her own departure from work, about a half an hour earlier than normal, she headed home, unsure when Mulder was deciding to pick her up or if she was meeting her somewhere or something. She couldn't even imagine what she would wear. What was appropriate for a first date with a man who's been her life for seven years that she's already been intimate with? 

She went to unlock her door and was a little shocked to find it unlocked already. Worry and instant alertness filled her and she withdrew her gun, Donnie Pfaster too fresh in her mind and knowing she had a knack for people breaking into her apartment, she was taking no risks. She slowly pushed the door open, weapon drawn, only to lower it instantly in pure surprise. 

Her apartment was transformed, white twinkle lights strewn across the walls and hanging from the ceiling by tape. A little cozy area was made in her living room, her couch pushed slightly to the side to make room. Blankets sat in a square on the floor, like a picnic. Two glasses sat on the stand, wine bottle next to it. Little rose petals lined the table. Food was prepared at her kitchen, the smell of spaghetti making her mouth water. She holstered her gun, looking up with a gaping jaw as Mulder came walking down the hallway from the bathroom, wearing black dress pants and black socks but nothing more, unable to see her as he toweled off his wet hair.

"Mulder?" She said curiously and his neck snapped up. 

He looked a little disappointed, a little amused, as if he expected something to go wrong. "Scully, you weren't supposed to be back yet. I haven't gotten dressed yet." 

She flicked her eyes down to his bare chest then up to his eyes. "I can see that," she said with a smile. "Did you do all this for me?" She glanced around the room again. 

He nodded, his own smile small but sincere. "Happy first date, Scully." She came closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, gazing up at him. He smiled and pressed his lips to hers briefly, pulling back before she could distract him for too long. "I wanted to do a picnic, Scully, but since it's February, I figured it might be a little cold," He glanced up at the ceiling where his twinkling string lights shined. He looked back at her shyly when she didn't reply, too enamored by him to do so. "Do you like it? I know it's not a fancy restaurant or some fairytale horse-drawn carriage and I think I've lost my dress shirt-" 

She lifted her hands and enveloped his cheeks, forcing him to stop his worrying. "Mulder, I love it. You don't have to dress in something fancy. In fact, I'd prefer if we could just wear something soft and cozy." 

He grinned broadly, his skin moving under her palms and she brushed her thumb under his eyes. Then she gave him a light pat on the cheek. "Get out of those pants, G-man." 

She followed him down the hallway, giving him a firm slap on the back when he replied, "Ooh, Scully, I love it when you talk like that." 

——

They laid on the blanket after eating, their wine forgotten as they stared up at the string light stars. She laid parallel to him, her hand between them tightly grasping his. "I think I see the Big Dipper," Mulder said, pointing at a clutter of lights in the corner. 

She laughed freely, a sound that she seemed to produce more and more as time with Mulder went by. "Well, I've got you beat. Look, there's Orion." 

A comfortable silence and then, "Do you ever think about it?" 

Scully glanced at him with curiosity, her nose almost brushing his neck. "Think about what?" 

"Our lives. If they could've been different. You told me once that it seems like there could only be one choice and the rest were wrong. There are signs and everything leads up to all these moments." 

She nodded hesitantly, wondering where this conversation was leading. She would've been content with the quiet, with lying here with him until the stars went blue. But his mind, she knew, was loud and even more so in the silence. He couldn't survive quiet moments without his brain working a million miles per hour. "I guess not very often. I don't try to think about the past too often."

Mulder leaned towards her, this time allowing her nose to bump his jawline and she breathed him in, loving the fact that he was wearing the cologne she told him once smelled good. "Do you remember the case with the Ephesians?" 

A strangely sour taste entered her mouth and she moved back from his neck, looking back up at their misshapen constellations. "Yes," she said quietly, so quietly she wondered if he even had heard her. And it was true; she did remember that case. And in the past seven years as her love for her partner grew (technically only three years since that case) she started to resent her memory of it and the supposed evidence it brought to the table. She gave herself no room to believe in that one. If she believed in it, that meant that soulmates were real. 

And she was not Mulder's if that was true. 

Granted, she liked the idea that they'd always been friends. It made sense somehow, something that made her feel warm and faraway inside, like something stronger was calling to her from Mulder's eyes, eyes that she felt she'd always known. But it hurt to think about the possibility that there was always someone else for Mulder, someone else more strongly connected to him than her. 

Scully frowned, finding she was enjoying this conversation less and less. Mulder's fingers curled in hers. "Well, you know, I was thinking, the Smoking Man was alive during the 40s. I don't think he could've been a Gestapo officer too." 

Scully let out a quiet noise of annoyance. "I don't want to talk about this, Mulder -" She tried to sit up but Mulder stopped her by turning on his side and wrapping an arm around her waist. She turned to look at him and the intensity of his hazel eyes startled her. He looked so earnestly certain and longing that she was instantly entranced. 

"I was wrong, Scully," He admitted to her. "You know, I think about it a lot. And I think if I was ever to have a soulmate, it'd have to be you. There's no one else on earth, then, now or to be, that I feel more connected with than you." She sensed he wasn't finished talking when he paused and she didn't have words to say either at the time, so she awaited his continuation. He always has had a way with words and she wasn't about to stop him now. "Everyday I'm more and more sure I've loved you before. I've known you before Scully. I've loved you for as long as the stars have shined." 

"And it's a strange sort of love, you know, Scully? We constantly are in danger, but only because we refuse to give up on one another. Sometimes we can get so angry at one another, but that doesn't change a thing. Always, I find myself looking at you or hearing you on the phone and I don't think I could possibly explain how it makes me feel. And to think you once told me that there is a right choice and imply that where we are is exactly where we're supposed to be?" His eyes left hers only for a moment to send an eye roll towards their sky. "That's devastatingly hot." 

Scully couldn't help the laugh that bubbles past her lips and she scooted closer, her nose brushing his as she brushed kisses on his jaw. "You," she whispered. "Are insufferable," She placed a kiss on his nose. "Incorrigible," On his cheeks. "And did you say love?" 

Mulder's white-toothed grin was enough to throw away all her thoughts on soulmates and dredging up the past and she met his lips, slow and sweet and sensual. And he continued to show her that he did in fact say 'love' and meant it. 

——

Laying naked on her floor atop a pile of blankets was not something she expected to be doing that night, but then again, she'd never expected to be in love with her partner and best friend. She was falling asleep quickly, her eyes on his mesmerized look as he stared up at the 'stars'. She fluttered her eyelids, desperately trying to hold onto the moment a little longer before the morning came. They had the weekend together, sure, but Monday always came too quick. 

Mondays always brought back borders, the sleeping in separate apartments and hotel rooms, the professionalism. Granted, they couldn't help the little looks and touches and innuendos (Mulder, mostly). And on particularly tough cases, neither denied themselves the comfort of the other. But weekends were special and she wasn't intending to waste them. 

Just as she was falling asleep, Mulder turned over and wrapped an arm around her belly just under her breasts, his cheek pressing warmly against her forehead as he nuzzled against her. “I do love you,” he whispered. “More than anything.” 

She blinked sleepily, kissing under his jaw lazily. “You know, I don’t think that’s appropriate for a first date.” 

His mischievous snicker was soft in her ear. “Says the one who let me hit a whole home run,” He replied cheekily, pinching her side playfully. 

She tipped her head up and kissed him, reveling in the lazy way their lips met. A thumb stroked a path across her ribs and she couldn’t help but bury her fingers in his hair. After a long moment of gentle give and take, she laid her head on his chest, placing a kiss to his heart. 

A comfortable silence fell once more and Scully closed her eyes. “I love you too, Mulder.” 

She could sense the peacefulness in him. Mulder was normally a restless man, apparent by his chaotic behavior, lack of sleep, and persistent spewing of facts that supported his wild theories. Now, he was relaxed, on the edge of sleep, and his attention hadn’t strayed even once to his work. 

She couldn’t help but grin when he added quietly, “If you thought this was good, just you wait for the second date.” 

There was no doubt in her mind that somehow, amidst all her aplomb in her science, she was meant to find him. She didn’t know how she could believe anything else.

**Author's Note:**

> I love feedback! Thank you for checking this out !!


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